royal mail re-direction service

[mandimoo]

how does it work then? ive got one currently and re-directed mail comes to my new address with a label on it. what i want to know, is how do they do it? i mean, out of all the miliions of letters they process, i cannot believe that someone is pulling MY letters out and relabelling them, but how do they find MY letters?

[BillySugger]

No idea to be honest but will be keeping an eye out for forthcoming posts along the lines of ' Where has all my re-directed mail gone ?'

[Ethel]

I've used it in the past without problems, and when I go abroad for several weeks I stop the delivery all together

[gina32]

ive had my dads mail re-directed and some of that doesnt get sent to me, so its a bit annoying

[Buenchico]

The traditional way of re-directing mail is to sort it as normal but to ensure that the postman at your old address (or the person who fills his sack) is aware that a redirection order is in place. The postman (or his colleague in the sorting office) should then ensure that your mail is withdrawn from the delivery, and re-addressed to your new location.

However, if the automated sorting machinery (which is now used throughout the country) is linked to a common database, it ought to be possible to re-route your mail at a much earlier stage. As soon as mail reaches a principal sorting office, the address is read and the mail is electronically labelled with the full postcode for your address. (The full code includes the house number or name. So, if you live at 23 Acacia Avenue, Sometown, ST1 2AB, your full postcode is 23ST12AB, which uniquely identifies where you live). It would be perfectly possible for the machinery to automatically withdraw any postal item where the central database indicated that a redirection order was in force for that address. A sorter could then access the database to see if the addressee was the former occupant (for whom mail should be redirected) or the new occupant (to whom the mail should still be delivered).

Chris

[thelewisgang]

We have had an awful lot of bother with Royal Mail with our mail redirection. The post was just going to our old address and thanks to the lovely couple who moved into our home, they forwarded it on to us. We complained, oh yes, we complained & first of all they gave us "compensation" of three books of lst class stamps with their assurances that they had spoken to the sorting office. Unfortunately, mail still went to our old address. After many more phone calls, emails and letters they eventually refunded our fee, around �38 for their so called service. We have just one month left to run and have just received a letter asking if we wish to renew the redirection???!!

[horselady]

I think it worked fairly well for us when we moved, never did get a new TV licence though, god knows where that ended up. Pay by DD and have all details on-line so I know we're covered but never got the actual paper licence.